*** The Pendulum Floors

A KICKING GOOD TIME WITH . . .

(Villa Villakula)

After you've spent 10 years trying to play the major-label alternative game by the rules, it must feel great to make an album in your bedroom, over one weekend, with your sister and your son. And that may explain why Audrey Clark makes her post-360's debut with this likably quirky, incredibly non-commercial album -- of all the albums to appear during the lo-fi trend, this one may well have the lowest fi.

The band approach harks back less to the 360's than to sister Lori Kramer's psychedelic-poetry project, the Paper Squares (12-year-old guitarist Ian Clark completes the trio). An expanded version of a vinyl EP released last fall, this CD is a collage of accompanied readings, skeletal pop songs, and trippy instrumental bits. The latter are built around the Optigan, a cheapo and spooky-sounding '60s keyboard now found at better garage sales. As usual, the two sisters display psychedelic leanings that go beyond flowery '60s throwbacks. Kramer's various run-ins with pharmaceuticals provide lyric fuel, and Clark lightens things with her garage-pop know-how. The feel is equal parts bedroom jam, acid haze, sisterly confession, and therapy session. Ultimately, the nonexistent sound quality gets in the way; but if they'd care to increase the recording budget -- say, to 20 bucks -- there's a lot here that's worth exploring further.

-- Brett Milano